For the most part, top end Pristine isn't required except for Protect Self. That said, being at the top provides the largest power pool FOR abilities, and most require at least steady white.
Due to how large the ranges of soul we can detect as players, and the nature of the powers provided by soul mojo, it's extremely difficult to quantify the effects of varies states except when they are binary (Protect self's Pass/Fail for example).
Speaking personally, I'm of two minds on this. One side, I get the idea of soul and soul state being something that requires some constant input to maintain at maximum, in addition to avoiding the various hits, but the vague nature of the Soul State, Pools, and effects of many powers makes it difficult to really stay revved up about maintaining tippy top soul. On the other hand, I feel that some of the negative effects are FAR too hefty in stature. The PVP based ones especially are just..dumb.
I suspect many paladins would ignore soul if it didn't eliminate such a large portion of our spell list to have a poor soulstate. While personally, I utilize many of our soul powers/abilities daily (Glyphs, Lead, and Protect), I constantly see some of the more outspoken paladins talking about finding them valueless or impossible to use, and it saddens me.
Samsaren
